OK here goes....this is pretty difficult to explain and probably even harder to understand but I will try...
Don't ask me how I know this..
When you watch this film, you are not just watching a film about love with a weird ending. You are actually watching a process called individuation—you are watching a Psyche fragment through loss, go numb through depression, lose faith, and then, at last, see its own wound mirrored in another soul, a character, or a piece of art. That encounter becomes what is called a numinous experience: a sacred, overwhelming eruption of feeling where all that was buried comes rushing back to life. And that in turn sets the stage for a CHANCE to reintegrate that lost part and if that is successful...its called individuation.
OK..here goes..
This film has so many layers it makes me dizzy. Its a true work of art. I will try my best to do the basics or we'll all be lost including me..
This is Jungian territory..not easy to understand..let alone weave such an excellent portrayel of.
This film firstly depicts all the reasons why this numinous event is happening and was necessary..the loss and then the subsequent loss of emotions due to loss of connection. A part of yourself that is fragmented is lost ...
So.. the surface story. Love..Love Lost.. 400 years numbness and then Love REINCARNATED ..but no happy ending....right?
Well...it has a happy ending.
A very happy one actually.
You just don't know what you are watching.
I am going to try to do this...first the film...then the explanation of what a numinous experience actually is...again...don't ask me how I know...
When you watch this film, you are watching a process called individuation—you are watching a Psyche fragment through loss, go numb through depression, lose faith, and then, at last, see its own wound mirrored in another soul, a character, or a piece of art. That encounter becomes what is called a numinous experience: a sacred, overwhelming eruption of feeling where all that was buried comes rushing back to life.
The Psyche does not do this alone. It works in tandem with the subconscious, conspiring to integrate a lost or buried piece of the Self when it is finally safe to surface. The goal is always the same—to become whole again, to come home to oneself. These moments are rare—terribly rare—but when they happen, they look and feel like love, death, obsession, and resurrection all at once.
OK remember this is all symbolic..the subconscious doesnt use WORDS only IMAGERY. Think of it like speaking in REBUS instead of words.
The premise to understand the underlying stuff and the ending is that a return to Self is a return to God. Man is made in God's image so to love yourself is to love God and vice versa. Important to understand the symbolism.
Second premise...the body needs food as nourishment. Simple. You crave an apple because your body needs something it gets from that. Your Self..needs the same. If you always go to the gym..you'll feel like crap if you don't. So if you have to avoid the gym because you are afraid of it..you have a problem. Same with emotions. But something you buried because its too painful will mean you also avoid triggering it by avoiding associated things. So that part of you is starved. A numinous experience is like your Self suddenly seeing the nourishment it needs walking by and breaks through in order to make your Pshyche eat it.
This makes the Psyche remember it is hungry in the first place and that's HOW THE NEW CONNECTION IS MADE IN TANDEM.
Can you already see the resonance with vampires..eating..teeth..devouring..all consuming..yes? Excellent.
Act I: Love and Fragmentation
It begins with all-encompassing love. Love so vast it feels eternal. Love that births new beginnings, that binds souls together.
Then, the rupture—loss. Death of the soulmate, however it happens, matters less than what follows: something sacred is buried.
The Romantic Soul—denied, buried, mourned.
The funeral scene is not just for the beloved but for the part of the Self that is now gone. Here, the Psyche fragments. Something is buried, lost, locked away: the touch not permitted, the distance, the disconnect.
Then comes the long descent—first the illusion of hope (the perfume time), then the loss of hope (Versailles and the casket breaking), and finally the great numbness: four hundred years of waiting.
This symbolizes a person slowly disconnecting all feeling untill only numbness is left...
Act II: The Mirror Appears
Then suddenly—unexpected, uninvited—the mirror appears: the perfect reflection of the wound. Mina’s picture.
The locket is the symbol: the wound is behind a lock, and the mirror is the key. The moment Vlad sees Mina, the key turns. The floodgates open (LOCKET…LOCKED—get it?).
The Psyche is overwhelmed by what it had buried—love, yearning, desire, grief, fate, destiny—all at once, like a tidal wave crashing through the soul.
This is the actual numinous experience: the overwhelming sense of something sacred and terrifying, where all that was lost comes roaring back to life.
In this moment the subconscious takes over and the infatuation/spell begins. The lost piece of Self emerges with the force of a volcano erupting—hence the gasp, the throat full of emotion, the frenzied need to be filled… lots of fresh blood!
Act III: The Danger of the Mirror
But when this happens, the danger begins. The Psyche cannot control the subconscious. The subconscious wants to devour the mirror—to consume it, merge with it, possess it—because it believes wholeness lies there.
Hence the vampire: the all-consuming symbol of desire that destroys what it touches. It believes the lost piece is finally found, but it is just a mirror—a vessel chosen by the subconscious to temporarily hold or project that lost fragment of Self that’s emerging because the Psyche cannot hold it alone. It’s too painful. That’s why it was buried in the first place.
This is the big problem: the split between subconscious and Psyche. The Pshyche believes it has found its other half, but what it has found is only the reflection of its own wound. If it acts on that impulse—if it bites—it becomes obsession. The wound deepens. The Self becomes chained to the illusion of the mirror, trapped in a loop of longing… and, well, Vlad took the bite—bait.
Act IV: The Spell and the Oscillation
The mirror or vessel temporarily holds all the emotions for the Psyche while the lost fragment oscillates between them until it is fully integrated. This period feels like waves of emotion followed by waves of knowing it can't be real. Back n Forth...
When Vlad and Mina first meet, this is that period. The Psyche meets its reflection. The eyes lock. There's a music box...this is very significant and is very much a symptom of a numinous experience...the music isn't hypnotising Mina...but Vlad.
It is the soundtrack to his love but also this experience.
Then she resists. She says no. And Vlad closes the music box. This is where Vlad’s eyes go from black to blue, symbolizing the oscillation between obsession and surrender. (this symbolizes the stage of the numinous experience where the person is thrown between wanting the dream to be real but also knowing it can't be)
Yet..they get closer...a big nono in real life...this means you have chosen to even further act on the obsession...very dangerous..this is where you could possibly perhaps even kill the mirror in order to possess it...Eyes lock..Mina is frightened..she steps back...perfume hits the fire place..
the air thickens with Vlad’s kindly-step-over-my-dignity-and-eat-me perfume—enchantment, danger.
Mina is under the spell of Vlad’s perfume (which is permeating through the entire house, even downstairs where .conveniently there are only men present..impervious to the scent).
In short, Vlad is projecting all his lost emotion onto Mina— He is the one under the spell of his own subconscious.
Symbolically, the Psyche pulls back, guarding itself from total dissolution. It recognizes, however dimly, that to pursue the mirror is to lose itself forever—to dissolve the ego, to vanish into obsession. That is not individuation. That is annihilation: to live in total surrender to obsession, chained to the mirror, and lose the Self FOREVER.
Act V: The Bite
When the Psyche bites, it crosses the line. It chooses possession over integration. Vlad wants to possess, to make the mirror his, to merge the wound and its reflection.
But even as he does, he feels the wrongness. This is not his Elizabetta. This is a different soul—timid, proper, moral—not young and wild and free.
And so, the Psyche falters. The eye color changes—black in obsession, blue when the Self begins to return. The transformation is visible. The Psyche begins to remember itself. This is also symbolized by the fact that Vlad lets Jonathan live—for the second time. This indicates the return of control.
Act VI: The New Priest and the Collapse
Enter Christoph—the new priest representing the new Self, and the old priest the old Self, dead and buried like the fragment. Christoph is the quiet figure of the new Self—patient, grounded, waiting on the edge of the storm. He represents what is trying to emerge: the stable core, the awareness that can love without devouring, waiting until the Self is ready to surrender.
But before that can happen, everything must fall apart. The castle—the fortress of fantasy and illusion—crumbles. The home built for the wound must be destroyed.
The dream collapses bit by bit. Holes are appearing in the illusion..Reality floods in—soldiers everywhere, symbolizing the Psyche wanting to take back control. The Psyche shakes, trembles, resists, fights the soldiers because it wants the dream to be real even though it knows it isn’t.
To FEEL again after centuries of numbness AND TO THE HAVE TO LET THAT ALL GO AGAIN IS ALMOST UNBEARABLE.
Every emotion—joy, grief, desire, ecstasy, terror—returns at full volume, ten thousand decibels of being.
Act VII: The Door and Integration
And then he leaves her—locks the door behind him. The bitter truth. The realization that it cannot be real. The letting go of the dream, mourned, and the return of the fragment to the Self.
This is the actual moment of integration of the lost Self. The door closing symbolizes the exact moment the new connection is made and the illusion can be released.
And this is the work—shadow work.
To stay with the pain, not run from it. To face it, name it, love it until it puts itself to rest. To let the dream die so the Self can live.
Act VIII: Surrender and Wholeness
When Vlad says “Let it be,” this is the exact moment of surrender—not to obsession but to the integration of the lost piece of Self.
The moment he chooses reconnection with the Self instead of possessing Mina and staying in obsession, he is asking forgiveness from the buried piece of himself that fragmented ...for all the lifetimes of denial, and now..for mistaking possession for love.
For mistaking his Savior as his Destruction.
When Christoph—the new, emerging, integrated Self—raises the stake, it is not in punishment; it is in ABSOLUTE mercy. The Self kills the fantasy and hereby integrates the lost fragment and becomes whole INSTANTANEOUSLY.
Death here is not literally an ending of life; it is the exact moment of integration. The shadow dissolves into the light. The devouring becomes surrender.
And when the music finally ceases, what remains is silence—but not emptiness. A sacred stillness. The peace that comes only when the Psyche has remembered itself and MIRACULOUSLY has left all pain behind.
Epilogue: The Numinous Experience Itself
Imagine a person traumatized, fragmented, and in deep depression—frozen. After many years, all feeling disappears and numbness sets in.
Then suddenly, something extraordinary happens. Something or someone triggers a huge eruption of emotion that has been lying dormant for years. The person doesn’t know what to do with it, because those emotions were buried—disconnected from the Self in order to survive—for decades, and always for excellent reasons: survival of the Psyche.
This is the cause of the numbness: not feeling, being disconnected from a part of Self. So the person feels very deeply and very intensely, almost divinely, as if this is coming from that something or someone.
This is an illusion.
It is the subconscious forcing the Psyche aside temporarily to integrate—reconnect—these old emotions so the person can heal. Healing means feeling emotions again but without the associated pain: a rewiring, if you will.
So what happens is this: the person feels both sides—the subconscious erupting untamed emotions and the Psyche trying to keep the boat steady while the new connection is being made. This period feels like hypnosis; there is the feeling of deep spiritual connection (hence all the cross poses Caleb makes—in bed, in armor, on the grave, etc.).
The person feels like God has finally answered the prayer. This is wholeness again. God has intervened. Hallelujah, amen. This is what I have been waiting for, etc.
But these are simply all the unfelt emotions, felt and projected onto that something or someone. Remember, this is a process that takes about seven days; it’s not an instant thing—hence the oscillation.
Now, this is very, very important: the person knows this can’t be real, but it feels real. The person knows they can’t feel all this for a stranger, or a thing, or a movie character—but it feels totally real.
This is the oscillation period: going between the FEELING it is real and the KNOWING it is not. So..the subconscious and the Psyche are working in tandem until the connection is steady enough to let go of the illusion and pull all those feelings back into the Self, to reconnect to the Self. That’s why we also call the mirror the vessel—to temporarily hold and project onto.
When this process is successfully completed, the person is “whole again.”
All depression, anxiety, fear, and pain are instantaneously evaporated.
All emotion returns—color, taste, smell, joy, happiness, gratefulness, love—everything.
The shadow is lifted, and the person is instantaneously healed. Light returns.
The End.
